The Astonishing -- Order and Pre-Order information

[zappafrank2112]

I emailed again mentioning I saw someone in here already had their set. The guy said this:

As far as I am aware we have not begun shipping these, however it does appear that the box sets have dropped to our warehouse to begin being packaged for shipment. Hopefully we will have these shipped out very soon.

What e-mail address did you use?

[Mindflux]

I emailed again mentioning I saw someone in here already had their set. The guy said this:

As far as I am aware we have not begun shipping these, however it does appear that the box sets have dropped to our warehouse to begin being packaged for shipment. Hopefully we will have these shipped out very soon.

What e-mail address did you use?

Originally I used the contact form to get a ticket #. (https://store.roadrunnerrecords.com/contacts)

but the reply to address is:

merch.roadrunnerrecords.com@gmail.com

[Madman Shepherd]

Just got the full amount refunded.  They claim they have it in the warehouse and are going to start packaging them, whatever that means but they still refunded it.

I feel kind of bad.  I was willing to take the refund minus the fair market value of the CD, which is about $15 on Amazon but they just gave me the full amount. 

[zappafrank2112]

Got a reply to my e-mail asking about the status and a refund. It's similar to what others have received and is about what you'd expect.  Despite what others have said about being told the sets are actually in-house, the reply to me makes it sound like they're still waiting.

Thank you for your email.

We are very sorry about the series of unexpected production delays. Management is aware of this and we are doing our best to get this highly anticipated box set out to you.

I know that you have prepaid for this box set and have been waiting patiently. If you would like me to cancel and refund your order please let me know. This way you can come back later once it's finally available and pay for it in real time.

We are just as anxious to get this in our hands as well. Once more I am very sorry delay.

If you have any questions, please let us know.

[zappafrank2112]

I know people who have legit forgotten they even ordered the box set, it's been so out of sight, out of mind; they never even received e-mail updates, which apparently has been a problem.

At this point, I honestly feel that they owe us all a partial refund even if we accept the sets.  What if someone had bought this as a gift? What if someone had bought a NOMAC to take to a meet n greet and get signed?  Ridiculous.

[zappafrank2112]

Just got the full amount refunded.  They claim they have it in the warehouse and are going to start packaging them, whatever that means but they still refunded it.

I feel kind of bad.  I was willing to take the refund minus the fair market value of the CD, which is about $15 on Amazon but they just gave me the full amount.

Might seem obvious, but they took your name off of the list of people to send the set to, correct?  Or is it possible they refunded you but still kept your name on the list?

[bhull]

Got a reply to my e-mail asking about the status and a refund. It's similar to what others have received and is about what you'd expect.  Despite what others have said about being told the sets are actually in-house, the reply to me makes it sound like they're still waiting.

Thank you for your email.

We are very sorry about the series of unexpected production delays. Management is aware of this and we are doing our best to get this highly anticipated box set out to you.

I know that you have prepaid for this box set and have been waiting patiently. If you would like me to cancel and refund your order please let me know. This way you can come back later once it's finally available and pay for it in real time.

We are just as anxious to get this in our hands as well. Once more I am very sorry delay.

If you have any questions, please let us know.

I got the exact same canned response.

The poster was fine and all, but at this point I feel they have burned past whatever goodwill it generated...due to the lack of communication.  It would go a long way if they shipped it with some kind of awesome coupon for the store.

[SystematicThought]

I got the poster. 

I can't figure out whose signatures is whose. I can tell Mike's signature because of the M, and James' is semi legible, but the other signatures are jumbled messes. With the circumstances though, they probably got tired of signing.

[Mindflux]

I got the poster. 

I can't figure out whose signatures is whose. I can tell Mike's signature because of the M, and James' is semi legible, but the other signatures are jumbled messes. With the circumstances though, they probably got tired of signing.

I think it was discussed earlier in the thread but there's one signature missing on them. I forget who we determined it was.. maybe JMX?

[zappafrank2112]

Someone made a good point about the box set being delivered far after the novelty had worn off.

I think that was a very astute observation.  It's like, "I'm over the album at this point.  I'm no longer excited about the new release, especially knowing how that release failed to deliver*.  It's like, I don't care anymore.  The moment is gone.  I don't have the same enthusiasm for the album itself, so I sure don't have the same enthusiasm for the bells and whistles."

*my opinion, obv

[Madman Shepherd]

Just got the full amount refunded.  They claim they have it in the warehouse and are going to start packaging them, whatever that means but they still refunded it.

I feel kind of bad.  I was willing to take the refund minus the fair market value of the CD, which is about $15 on Amazon but they just gave me the full amount.

Might seem obvious, but they took your name off of the list of people to send the set to, correct?  Or is it possible they refunded you but still kept your name on the list?

Let me clarify.  They sent me an email saying the boxsets just arrived so they would immediately label my order as "backordered" and once I get that email I can cancel.  Once I did, I canceled.  Don't know why they did it like this but I got my money back so I guess I'm happy. 

I doubt my name is still on a list to receive it.

[Ben_Jamin]

Just got an email saying my Boxset is shipping.

Alright.

[Lark the Starless]

Just got an email saying my Boxset is shipping.

Alright.

Same. Finally! It looks to be arriving Friday, August 5 (nuggetz) for me.

[brucknerdoc]

Same email that it has shipped - and just a week after an email that they had no idea when...

Anyway, tracks to arrive on Wed - finally!!! 

[theanalogkid7]

No email for me saying its shipped. In fact, I've not received an email since the "Hey, we're sending you a signed poster" email. Just tried logging into the RR webstore and it can't find my account. Tried to reset my password and 30 minutes later, still no reset email. I guess I'll actually have to contact RR support... :-/

[Mindflux]

Nothing here from RR

[nobloodyname]

Nothing here, either. And no response to the email I sent them a couple of days ago.

[Curt]

Nothing here, either. And no response to the email I sent them a couple of days ago.

Same deal here

[bhull]

So I did get the shipment notification and tracking number on Monday.  But RR still had to get one last fail in.

Anything valuable that I order online, I would get it delivered to my work so it doesn't sit in front of the house all day.  I worked in the energy sector and finally got hit in a third round of layoffs due to the oil crash.

Within a day or two, I went into my RR acct and updated the shipping information back to my house.

Well, I guess the system pulled the shipping data from the pre-order info and not from my acct information.  They have shipped it to my old employer.  /sigh

Luckily I left on very good terms and can swing by to pick it up....but still annoying as hell. 

I'm tempted to contact RR to have them correct the shipping address, but I figured it's been enough of a shitshow over there.  I'll just let it go and drive out to pick it up.

[dreamtheater360]

Out of nowhere I got an email from rr with a tracking number and should have mine today or tomorrow. So looks like they are starting to ship them out, but in small batches. But wow did they do a poor job of keeping us informed, and still have not shipped them by the date the said they would. I've purchased the last 4 albums as the limited editions, but this may be my last one. What really bugs me is that I wanted to take something from the limited edition to get signed at the meet and greet, but since I didn't have anything but the CD, I ended up taking something from the Dream Theater limited edition to get signed. Only hope now is that they play somewhere close on the second leg of the tour and I get them to sign it then.

[zappafrank2112]

How do I check the status of my order?  I didn't create an account when I ordered the boxset. I've got an order number but no way to check its status.

[dreamtheater360]

I think you can go to https://store.roadrunnerrecords.com/contacts and submit your info. However, buy the responses of most people on this forum, it may be 2 months they will respond to you. 

[Ben_Jamin]

Out of nowhere I got an email from rr with a tracking number and should have mine today or tomorrow. So looks like they are starting to ship them out, but in small batches. But wow did they do a poor job of keeping us informed, and still have not shipped them by the date the said they would. I've purchased the last 4 albums as the limited editions, but this may be my last one. What really bugs me is that I wanted to take something from the limited edition to get signed at the meet and greet, but since I didn't have anything but the CD, I ended up taking something from the Dream Theater limited edition to get signed. Only hope now is that they play somewhere close on the second leg of the tour and I get them to sign it then.

Wow...

Just be happy you got something signed.

[dreamtheater360]

Wow...

Just be happy you got something signed.

Don't get me wrong. I'm very happy to get stuff signed by the band, but we spend s lot of money for meet and greet tickets and collector edition stuff, and it just would have been nice to get an item from The Astonishing signed by the band on The Astonishing tour.

Also I understand they had some production problems or delays, I just feel that Roadrunner could have done better to keeping us updated.

[BFRedrocks]

Apparently mine shipped and is set to arrive on Friday, but I'll believe it when I see it.  Just in trying to think about what I was supposed to get, and what I've already received, there's not much more to this than the 3D printed Nomac and a few other items (book?).  It'll be interesting to see how it's packaged.

[dreamtheater360]

So I received mine. Packaging was nice. NOMAC replica is very detailed. The map and poster are very large. Trading cards are probably a little bigger than playing cards. The screenplay is heavy white paper, three hole punched with brass fastener, so it looks like a screenplay should look.  Something that I guess I missed and wasn't expecting was that it was packaged with another copy of the CD. They sent the first copy when it was released in February, so I ended up with 2 copies of the CD.

[The J-Man]

I just received mine 10 minutes ago. I bought 2 (one for me and one for my brother) and they are both heavily damaged. Words cannot describe how upset I am at the moment. Poorly packed. I'll post an OP with pictures.

[zappafrank2112]

I just received mine 10 minutes ago. I bought 2 (one for me and one for my brother) and they are both heavily damaged. Words cannot describe how upset I am at the moment. Poorly packed. I'll post an OP with pictures.

I wondered if this might happen.

I also wonder many extra they produced, given that it's not sold out and it was such a pain in the ass to get.

I'd ask them for replacements plus some kind of refund.  This has just gotten ridiculous.  I'm sure they'll try to pass the buck, but you can threaten them with a report (in the US at least) to the Better Business Bureau.  Misleading information, lack of communication (on multiple fronts), damaged goods: there's a lot of marks against them.

[zappafrank2112]

Something that I guess I missed and wasn't expecting was that it was packaged with another copy of the CD. They sent the first copy when it was released in February, so I ended up with 2 copies of the CD.

This speaks to incredibly shoddy record keeping on their part.  They should know who has and has not received at least the CD portion. 

Why does this matter?  If they're giving away duplicates to everyone who ordered, then they can turn around later and say that they have to jack prices in order to eat the cost they lost when giving away CD's (despite how cheap they are to produce).

[bhull]

I just received mine 10 minutes ago. I bought 2 (one for me and one for my brother) and they are both heavily damaged. Words cannot describe how upset I am at the moment. Poorly packed. I'll post an OP with pictures.

Please post pics....very curious.


***EDIT***

Nevermind, just saw your other post...looking at the pics now.

[Aquiesence]

I assume all people that have received the NOMAC live in the US?

Is there anyone from EU that have ordered from the UK site and has any news?

Because it looks like none of the EU pre-orders has been fulfilled yet, and MAYBE next week RR will receive the product from the supplier ...

[SebastianPratesi]

I'm curious about the screenplay. Does it feature the same text as the CD booklet? Or, does it include anything else? (maybe additional descriptions about the places, characters, events...) For instance: does it include the descriptions from the micro-website?

[dreamtheater360]

I'm curious about the screenplay. Does it feature the same text as the CD booklet? Or, does it include anything else? (maybe additional descriptions about the places, characters, events...) For instance: does it include the descriptions from the micro-website?

It is just like the text in the CD booklet. None of the extra back story information from the track list website.

[zappafrank2112]

It is just like the text in the CD booklet. None of the extra back story information from the track list website.

Ugh, of course it's nothing special.

Is there anything special outside of the NOMAC?

Seriously considering cancelling my order.

[dreamtheater360]

It is just like the text in the CD booklet. None of the extra back story information from the track list website.

Ugh, of course it's nothing special.

Is there anything special outside of the NOMAC?

Seriously considering cancelling my order.

A large movie size poster, a big 2 sided map, 15 trading cards and the CD in included in the box as well. The NOMAC is really the center piece.

Also, if anyone wants any photos of any of the items, let me know and I'll post them.